1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information handling graphics systems, and more particularly to a system and method for information handling system hot insertion of external graphics.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems typically present information as visual images at an external or internal display. Generally, a graphics subsystem renders visual information provided by an application running on a CPU. The graphics subsystem typically resides in a chipset or a separate graphics card of the information handling system. Complex graphics presentation usually is processed at least in part by a graphics processor unit (GPU) so that the processing workload for presenting visual images is shifted from the CPU. For instance, the CPU generates and sends graphics instructions through a PCI Express (PCIe) bus to the GPU, which executes the instructions for presenting the visual image. In desktop information handling systems, the output from the GPU proceeds through an external cable, such as a VGA or DVI cable to an external display. Portable information handling systems send the GPU output through an internal bus to an integrated display, but also often support presentation of visual information at external display devices.
Graphics subsystems have become increasingly powerful, especially for presentation of complex graphics, such as 3D images and animation. In some instances, the power consumed and heat produced by a graphics subsystem make it difficult to integrate the graphics subsystem within an information handling system housing. One alternative is to put the graphics subsystem in an external graphics box that has power and cooling independent from the information handling system. For example, a PCIe external port of an information handling system communicates visual information through an external cable to the external graphics box, which renders the visual information for presentation as a visual image at a display. The PCI Express specification calls for a “hot plug” capability that allows hot insertion and removal of a PCIe cable while an information handling system is running. However, current hardware platforms and operating systems will not support hot plug capability of core devices, such as a graphics subsystem, so an attempt to hot plug an external graphics box will generally crash the system. This presents a particular challenge with portable information handling systems where end users expect hot plug capability as part of the system usage model for all external ports, including external displays and docking systems. The end user experience will be negatively impacted by delays and complexity in the process of restarting an information handling system and setting up the external graphics box each time it is used.